Category Archives: Titles-Short-Stories

What’s the point of this trudge around town? Why is the richest man in the world a miserable git?

The stories in this collection are both challenging and accessible, simply told yet illuminating.

Buy The Walker for just £8.99 with free shipping in the UK only

please contact us if you want to order a book from outside the UK with your delivery details and we will advise you of the cost.

Excerpt:

Me? I’m just a walker, a walker and a watcher. I observe, I see things and I interpret them in my head. It used to be just a game, when I was younger, playing with people’s lives, my mind; but there’s a price to pay. Open yourself up; peel away the layers of self-justification and stare at the void. The price of being different, of being aware. So, I walk, and watch, and remember, storing away all the looks on your faces. I spend many a happy hour lying sleeplessly in my bed thinking of you, recalling those expressions.

Can you picture this?

A body walks down a street or in a shopping arcade – a market. It’s a man, could be a woman? Or maybe women are different. Does it have to be a man? This guy is walking. OK – you listening? He has his hands in his pockets, his head bowed, bent towards his feet – walking – he passes a shop window; you stare out from behind the counter. He lifts his head from the floor and turns it towards you. You expect an intelligent stare – an inner knowing glow – at least a mad look, something to make you shiver with unknowing. No, what you see is a blank frightened look – the face of a loser – a shambolic dirty-coated greasy-haired, pimply-skinned loser. He puts his head down and moves on, shuffling forlornly, in character, on the damp concrete floor. You sigh with relief and turn back to your life your own hope renewed.

secondary character and other stories

After the Cardiff readings of the WSSN last Summer we got together with Barrie Llewelyn and put a call out for short stories from the writers of Wales.

We were delighted with the response and with the quality of the stories submitted, many from established writers and some from those dipping their toes into publication for the first time. We’d love to have published every story but after a long and careful selection process the editor chose 28 stories for this collection.

UPDATE: August 2015

We are delighted to announce that the first book of short stories from the Welsh Short Story Network – ‘Secondary Character and other Stories’ edited by Barrie Llewelyn will be launched in Swansea and Cardiff next month.

Published by Opening Chapter with a beautiful and evocative cover design by Jo Mazelis the book features twenty-eight stories from twenty-eight writers and is a snapshot of the amazing range of short-story writing talent active in Wales today.

Launch Details

* FREE ADMISSION *

Each launch will consist of two 45 minute sessions separated by a break.

There will be readings from the stories and opportunities to chat and network

Swansea

Mozarts Bar and Venue
Wednesday September 9th 2015 at 7.30pm

followed by a special performance by acoustic trio Anni Wall

* Anni Wall are the renamed fabulous Dead Surf Country with Nico as lead singer and the addition of Anna on harp and accordion.

BOOK DETAILS

The twenty-eight stories collected here offer a wealth of both connection and contrast in plot, theme and style. By its nature the short story is capable of leaping into the reader’s imagination to vivid and startling effect, as demonstrated here; from the supernatural in ‘A Ghost May Come’ to the psychologically charged in ‘Marco’s Eyes’ to the poignant ‘Theft’ each story in this diverse anthology plays with both the everyday and those profound and life changing emotions of loss, jealousy and regret.

Among the compelling characters to be found in these stories is a young woman in the boot of a car, a man embarrassed by an inexplicable wound, a WWI infantryman about to meet his fate and a girl fascinated by bells… all proving that it’s very hard to make rules about what constitutes a short story.

The book Made in Roath is a snapshot of some of the creative talent associated with the area of Cardiff known as Roath. It is a record of some of the activity and work made during the festival of the same name.

Edited by Christina Thatcher and featuring the work of 40 contributors. (**scroll down for a list)

The book is available as a paperback – 6″ x 9″, 150 pages, containing prose, poetry, observations, and black and white photographs.

ISBN 10: 1-904958-46-X, ISBN 13: 978-1-904958-46-8

All for just £7.99

Made in Roath, the festival, is an artist-led, free event which aims to take art out of the gallery and into the wider community, allowing a larger and broader audience to access the wealth of creative talent in our neighbourhood whilst maintaining a standard of excellence, reflecting the contemporary art scene in Cardiff and South Wales.

It showcases the work of emerging and established artists, makers, musicians, writers and performers, who use the whole of Roath as the venue, including domestic, commercial, public and overlooked or disused spaces.

Made in Roath offers residents and visitors an opportunity to engage in the arts through a dynamic programme of exhibitions, residencies, collaborations with community groups, workshops and performances.

For more information please visit the Made in Roath website http://madeinroath.com/. You can also like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter or just come along to their next exciting endeavour in Cardiff.

We are delighted to publish this wonderful collection of short stories from Barrie Llewelyn, a writer who creates a unique narrative landscape from the rapport and conflict between her American origins and her adopted homeland of Wales; and all told through the voices of her fascinating and very real characters.

A true original.

Women who should know better, but don’t. Characters who occupy both urban America and rural Wales – sometimes at the same time.

Mothers and daughters; husbands and lovers – these are some of the tensions and fusions explored in this surprising collection by Barrie Llewelyn, a writer who is interested in the way each authentic voice can be startling and, sometimes, disturbing.

“Barrie Llewelyn’s stories are beautifully observed: they’re exact and patient in evoking the humour, the sadness and the uniqueness of each ordinary life, and they stay with the reader for a long time afterwards.” Emma Darwin

“A moving and powerful collection of human moments. Love, loss, family, friendships: all life is to be found in these stories, and Llewelyn writes with a quiet elegance reminiscent of the best of Amy Hempel or Raymond Carver. Sublime.” Mike Thomas

“The stories are tightly crafted and have an immediate and intriguing voice, which is no mean feat given the range of narrators used. Characters are heart-warming and deftly built; we warm to them right away and are left in each case with an intimate, shared sense of their individual losses, achievements, worries and hopes. The settings are interesting and intensely relevant, capturing the modern notion of shared identity known to so many of this world’s itinerant, diverse people. It’s thought-provoking and engaging! Buy a copy people!!!” Tom Anderson

A coming together of new and some old but previously unpublished work. Scraps, odds and ends, unedited, partially edited, abandoned work in progress – and some highly polished works.

Just something ‘For the Time Being’

Expected publication date late October / early November 2014

*** UPDATE *** weirdly this has come together ahead of schedule and will now be published on October 5th 2014. It may take a few days after that for physical copies to arrive.

Here’s couple of bits from the book to give a little taster of what’s to come:

The Black Sheep
He wasn’t much of a ram, small and weak, with no possibility of siring any of the sumptuous ewes that shared the lush green hillsides. He didn’t mind, he had his darling girl. She was tall and thin on her two legs, her hair as black and as thick as his fleece. He knew he was her favourite. Today, she hugged him longer and harder than usual and her eyes were wet with tears. Then she vanished. Later, the big man came back, grabbed his black fleece and dragged him into the back of a lorry.

————-

Visitors

The fucking mice are back. I know they’re there. They’re crawling under the fucking floorboards. The cheeky fuckers are even hiding under the settee. I saw one last night, a dark beige flash, zipping from the side of the settee towards the hole in the floorboards. It’s my own fault. There shouldn’t be a hole in the floorboards. It’s as easy as that; all you’ve got to do is give them a fucking excuse and they’re in. It doesn’t have to be anything major, a little gap in the bottom of the back door, a small crack in the floorboards, and that’s enough; that’s all they need . . . . . . . . . . (more)

Being Air Under Sky

From the deep, enigma
the source of the river
springing, sparkling
spreading its dream
flowing, glowing
a growing stream

Through the long, dilemma
the course of the river
shoaling, shining
shedding its blood
splashing, flashing
a dashing flood

To the wide, conundrum
the force of the river
scouring, scumbling
scuttling its breath
flaring, glaring
a sharing death